University of Minnesota basketball players suspended for group sex-tape tweet

UPDATE: Later Tuesday, the University announced that all three players would be suspended for the remainder of the season, meaning they'll miss the final two regular season games and the Big Ten Tournament. Read our original story below.

The University of Minnesota men's basketball season has been bad enough on the court. Why not cap things off with a sex scandal?

Three of the Gophers best players are on suspensions of indeterminate length after a sex-tape video surfaced and disappeared over this past weekend. The short clip was posted to the Twitter account of Kevin Dorsey, a freshman. The video's gone, as is Dorsey's entire Twitter account, but a number of sources have confirmed they've seen its contents, and have described a sex scene involving one woman and multiple men - at least one of them being Dorsey himself.

That's not exactly confirmation enough; that came in the form of suspensions of Dorsey and teammates Dupree McBrayer and Nate Mason, all of whom sat out Minnesota's game against Illinois on Sunday. How McBrayer and Mason, the team's leading scorer this year, factor into the video is unclear, and the vague statements from coach Richard Pitino and the University haven't done much to clear it up.

The University said only that players had been caught "violating team rules," and couldn't play Sunday. It did not state whether they would be eligible to play the next game or any others this season.

"Information related to individual student discipline is private educational data," the statement said, "and as a result we cannot share any additional information at this time."

Pitino alluded to "expectations and standards" in his own non-explanation of what got the players suspended. After the Gophers fell 84-71 to Illinois, he told reporters that the game "wasn't about wins and losses, it was about making sure our guys understand this thing is bigger than basketball."

The mainstream media has generally been a step behind on the Gophers' case, with the exception of KSTP's Darren Wolfson, who was tipped to the video's (brief) existence online, and has confirmed to the Star Tribune that he saw it, and Dorsey is one of its stars. What little else is known can be found in a thread on GopherHole.com message board, where one user shared his view of Dorsey's tapes:

In the two videos, two guys were double teaming a girl from the front and behind. In the second video, there was a different girl and Dorsey was taking the front while the other guy was doing her from behind. You could clearly see his face although he is the only one that I could see. Both videos were extremely graphic.

Just how this act violates "team rules" - a blanket statement schools use to punish embarrassing incidents they'd rather not discuss - isn't clear. It also isn't clear if this jeopardizes any of the three guys' standing as U of M students.

The school's code of conduct has a section on sexual assault, but no viewers of the video have contended it was not consensual. There is also a passage on bullying, "either in person or through electronic means, that causes stress or harm and that is repeated over time," which would include "defaming" or "invading privacy." In this instance, there's no indication the video was being used to target the woman depicted.

It's also not illegal. Not yet. Minnesota lawmakers are currently trying to craft legislation that would deal with what's commonly called "revenge porn." More than half of American states have statutes that pertain to explicit online postings that are published without one party's consent. Such laws can make the sharing of a homemade sex tape illegal, and could give the unwitting porn star recourse to sue the guilty party.

But the legislators' work remains unfinished, and the proposal to craft a new law is expected to be introduced some time during the upcoming session. If public officials are looking for a high-profile and local case to use as an example, they just found one.